Published in

Nature Research, Nature Communications, 1(14), 2023

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-36761-0

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Somatically hypermutated antibodies isolated from SARS-CoV-2 Delta infected patients cross-neutralize heterologous variants

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

AbstractSARS-CoV-2 Omicron variants feature highly mutated spike proteins with extraordinary abilities in evading antibodies isolated earlier in the pandemic. Investigation of memory B cells from patients primarily with breakthrough infections with the Delta variant enables isolation of a number of neutralizing antibodies cross-reactive to heterologous variants of concern (VOCs) including Omicron variants (BA.1-BA.4). Structural studies identify altered complementarity determining region (CDR) amino acids and highly unusual heavy chain CDR2 insertions respectively in two representative cross-neutralizing antibodies—YB9-258 and YB13-292. These features are putatively introduced by somatic hypermutation and they are heavily involved in epitope recognition to broaden neutralization breadth. Previously, insertions/deletions were rarely reported for antiviral antibodies except for those induced by HIV-1 chronic infections. These data provide molecular mechanisms for cross-neutralization of heterologous SARS-CoV-2 variants by antibodies isolated from Delta variant infected patients with implications for future vaccination strategy.